


52 / 53

by cosmicpoet



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Christmas, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Fluff, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 09:50:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17139575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicpoet/pseuds/cosmicpoet
Summary: Maki, in apartment 52, absolutely hates the asshole in apartment 53, who keeps blasting Christmas music. Nothing can change her mind on that fact. Or can it...?





	52 / 53

**November 2nd, 2018**

Maki sighs as she slumps down on her couch, thankful for the weekend at last. She’s been working nine to five all week, and all she wants is to pour herself a large glass of red wine and fall asleep with the television on. Flicking through Netflix, she finds a shitty horror film, uncorks a bottle of merlot, and then…

_‘I don’t want a lot for Christmas,_  
There is just one thing I need  
I don’t care about the presents  
Underneath the Christmas tree…’

For fucks sake. Whoever is blasting Christmas music in the apartment just earned themselves a number one spot on her shit list.

**November 20th, 2018**

She’s almost getting used to the constant blasting of Christmas music that seeps through her paper-thin apartment walls. Which isn’t to say that she likes, or even tolerates, the person playing it, it’s just that all of her complaints to the building manager have been ignored. She’s bought herself some noise-cancelling headphones, and she’s making do.

And she has a hangover, which makes everything so much worse. She probably shouldn’t have stayed up late drinking on a Monday night, but she doesn’t have a shift today, so yesterday, she’d thought that nothing really bad can come of it. She thought she’d just sleep off the inevitable hangover. But she was woken up at 6am by the usual Christmas music, and she’s had to suffer through since then.

She swears that she’s going to kill whoever lives in apartment 53.

**December 1st, 2018**

It’s three in the afternoon, which is a normal time for people to be awake and making noise. Still, she already hates the asshole in apartment 53, and the fact that they’re hammering nails into the wall that attaches to her living room wall isn’t exactly helping. The noise punctuates every breath she takes until she’s finally had _enough,_ and she decides to confront them, albeit passive aggressively.

She draws a cartoon Father Christmas on a spare piece of paper, then crosses out the eyes with red pen and draws a bleeding dagger stabbed into the chest. Writing ‘STOP THE CHRISTMAS SHIT OR SANTA GETS IT’ across the bottom, she smiles at her creation and posts it under the door of apartment 53.

**December 2nd, 2018**

There isn’t any Christmas music playing when she wakes up at 6am, a fact for which she is indescribably thankful. As her morning black coffee brews, she checks the post; bills, a Christmas card from Shuichi in apartment 41, and then a response from 53.

_A response from 53._

It’s scrawled on the back of her Father Christmas drawing. The person has drawn a little reindeer, dragging a sleigh full of coal. The caption reads ‘DON’T BE SUCH A SCROOGE’, and it makes her blood boil. She had - no, _has -_ a genuine complaint, and this person decides to be passive aggressive in response? There’s no way she can let this slide.

She foregoes the drawings and instead composes a letter.

_‘Dear The Asshole in Apartment 53,_

_What the fuck? Calm down with this Christmas shit. You’re not twelve years old, I assume. I don’t want to be woken up pre-10am with your fucking Mariah Carey. I hope that for Christmas, you get a stocking full of ‘fuck you’, with a side of ‘please die’ under the tree._

_Quit the festive bullshit, or at least turn it down._

_Sincerely,  
Annoyed (Apartment 52)’_

**December 3rd, 2018**

A response.

_‘Dear ‘Annoyed (Apartment 52)’,_

_I would have turned the music down if you’d only knocked on my door and asked. I don’t know why you hate Christmas so much! If you need to get into the festive spirit, I’m baking Christmas cookies today - feel free to come round and calm your unnecessary inner Grinch by taking some home._

_All my love,  
Christmas-Town (a.k.a Apartment 53)’_

She scowls, before tearing up the letter. It smells like cinnamon and pine tree, and she assumes that the person sprayed it with some Christmas fragrance before sending it, just to annoy her even more. Like _hell_ she’s going to go round and take any of their holly jolly shit.

**December 4th, 2018**

_‘Dear ‘Christmas-Town (a.k.a Apartment 53)’,_

_You’ll notice that I didn’t come round for Christmas cookies. That’s a fucking hint. I don’t like Christmas, and it’ll do you well to pretend that you hate it, too, before I come round there and give you a talking to with my fists._

_Regards,  
Pissed Off Even More Now (Apartment 52)’_

She posts the note under the door, and less than five minutes after doing so, hears Christmas music playing louder than ever through her living room wall. Seething with anger, she storms round and knocks on their door, but gets no answer.

Either the person in Apartment 53 is a fucking coward (likely), or they’re playing Christmas music too loud to hear the knocking (also likely).

**December 23rd, 2018**

Maki gets back from a shift late at night, approaching her apartment building after parking her car in the on-site parking facilities. There’s a man outside, looking a little tipsy, struggling to open the door to the building with his pass card. When she gets closer, she realises that he’s more than _just_ tipsy, he’s flat out wasted, and he’s tapping his card on the wrong area.

“Here,” she sighs, “I’ve got it.”

She opens the door and lets him inside first. Awkwardly, they walk to the elevator together. Whilst waiting for it to descend to the ground floor, she tries to make conversation.

“Good night, then?”

“Brilliant,” the man replies, “work’s Christmas party.”

“I’m glad you got back alright.”

“Thank you,” he says, drunk and over-enthusiastic, “I’m not that asshole who drinks and drives. Taxis all the way.”

“Well, I like your philosophy. Smart.”

“Thanks.”

When the elevator reaches them, she notices that he presses the fifth floor button - the same one she needs. She’s tempted to ask whether the Christmas music from their floor is bothering him, too, but one look at him tells her that he’s far too drunk to provide worthy conversation.

“Hey,” he says, shattering her hopes of having a silent elevator ride, “what’s your name?”

“Maki. I’m in Apartment 52. And you?”

“I’m Kaito.”

After saying this, he slumps against the elevator wall, evidently too drunk to stand. As they reach the fifth floor, he tries to move, but ends up with his back against the wall.

“C’mon,” she says, “let me help you to your apartment.”

She lifts him up and puts his arm around her so that she can bear most of his weight as they walk down the hallway. Just as she approaches her own apartment, she realises two things: one; that he’s stopped walking, and two; that she doesn’t actually know which apartment he lives in.

“This is me,” he says, answering her unspoken question, “number 53.”

“Wait… _you’re_ Christmas Town?”

“Hold the fuck up,” he replies, “you’re not…?”

“Number 52, yeah.”

“Oh damn. You’re a lot nicer than I thought you’d be.”

“You’re exactly the drunk asshole I expected you to be.”

“Well, you can fucking leave me here. I’m home now, and you’ve done your _Christmas good deed.”_

She’s about to say _‘fine’._ She’s about to fuck him off for the final time, when he falls into his own door and starts to cry.

Well, what exactly can she do now?

“Come on, let’s get you inside,” she says, and he passes her his key, which she uses to unlock his door. As she helps him onto his bed, she sits down, not wanting to leave him whilst he’s in this state.

“I’m sorry,” he hiccups, “for the Christmas music.”

“And the passive aggressive notes?”

“And the passive aggressive notes. Although you _started it.”_

“Like I said, you’re not twelve.”

“Well, fucking sorry. Sorry that I like Christmas.”

“I’m not arsed that you like Christmas. I just hate it, and I don’t want it shoved in my face.”

“Well damn, Maki, I don’t know what else to do!”

“What?”

“Fuck,” he says, running a hand through his hair and sitting up, “it’s my first Christmas on my own.”

“On your own?”

“Without my grandparents. I’m officially an orphan now, which, you can imagine, is going fucking stellar for me. So forgive me if I wanted to try and throw myself into happy memories with them instead of spending the entire of December wallowing in my own goddamn self-pity.”

“I’m…I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“Yeah, well, now you do.”

Maki looks at the clock. It’s past midnight.

“Hey, Kaito,” she says.

“What?”

“Happy Christmas Eve.”

“Oh, shit, it’s Christmas Eve.”

“I take it you’re gonna be alone tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” he says, fresh tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Not any more. We’re going to make Christmas dinner together.”

“I thought you hated Christmas?”

“Not as much as I hate the thought of you spending it alone.”

“Maki…I think I love you.”

“Idiot. Now get some sleep, we’ve got a lot of preparing to do for Christmas dinner when you wake up.”

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas Yui! I hope you like this fic!


End file.
